The first known "modern" rowing races began from competition among the professional watermen in the United Kingdom that provided ferry and taxi service on the River Thames in London. Prizes for wager races were often offered by the London Guilds and Livery Companies or wealthy owners of riverside houses.[10] The oldest surviving such race, Doggett's Coat and Badge was first contested in 1715 and is still held annually from London Bridge to Chelsea.[12] During the 19th century these races were to become numerous and popular, attracting large crowds. Prize matches amongst professionals similarly became popular on other rivers throughout Great Britain in the 19th century, notably on the Tyne. In America, the earliest known race dates back to 1756 in New York, when a pettiauger defeated a Cape Cod whaleboat in a race.[13]
The Apollo Pro 2 water rower is a commercial grade, natural wood rowing machine, perfect for group training or high-end home gyms. This rower’s water resistant design, meditative motion and integrity of construction sets it apart from its competitors. Handcrafted from the finest quality American Ash wrapped around a stabilising steel frame, this steadfast indoor rower offers a standout performance even in the harshest of fitness applications.

Rowing is one of the few non-weight bearing sports that exercises all the major muscle groups, including quads, biceps, triceps, lats, glutes and abdominal muscles. The sport also improves cardiovascular endurance and muscular strength. High-performance rowers tend to be tall and muscular: although extra weight does increase the drag on the boat, the larger athletes' increased power tends to be more significant. The increased power is achieved through increased length of leverage on the oar through longer limbs of the athlete. In multi-person boats (2,4, or 8), the lightest person typically rows in the bow seat at the front of the boat.

The Apollo Pro 2 water rower is a commercial grade, natural wood rowing machine, perfect for group training or high-end home gyms. This rower’s water resistant design, meditative motion and integrity of construction sets it apart from its competitors. Handcrafted from the finest quality American Ash wrapped around a stabilising steel frame, this steadfast indoor rower offers a standout performance even in the harshest of fitness applications.

The WaterRower Classic Rower is outfitted with a Series 4 performance monitor that's designed to balance technical sophistication with user-friendliness. The monitor--which includes six information and programming windows, six QuickSelection buttons, and three navigation buttons--displays your workout intensity, stroke rate, heart rate, zone bar, duration, and distance. Plus, the monitor is compatible with an optional heart rate chest strap and receiver, which helps you optimize your workout and achieve your exercise objectives.
Water Rower Dimensions: 88" x 22" x 28.5" / Weight: 79 Lbs (Empty Tank), 116 Lbs (With Water); Maximum User Weight And Height: 700... Lbs & 38" InseamExercise Rower Features Aluminum Makeup With Powder-Coated Aluminum Finish For High DurabilityBoasts Patented Water Flywheel Responsible For Its Natural Rowing Dynamic-Like Actually Driving A Boat With Oars! Other Features: Self-Regulating Resistance Levels-Making It Suitable For Any User, Little Maintenance Required (Tablets Available From Manufacturer Free Of Charge) And Inclusive Of S4 Performance Monitor (Displays Intensity, Kcalories/Hour, Stroke Rate, Heart Rate, And More! Enjoy 1 Year Commercial Warranty (Upgradeable To 3-Year Parts While 5-Year Frames Are Free Of Charge With Registration) read more
For a third option, you can look to hydraulic machines, which use pistons to generate resistance. Hydraulic rowers are quiet, and they also tend to be smaller and cheaper than other kinds of rowing machines, but you won’t get the same smooth rowing feel, or the consistency of resistance, that you would get with an air or water rower. What's more, reviewer after reviewer has found them unreliable and high-maintenance.
WaterRower is made in the USA using hardwood from only replenishable sources. WaterRower strives to manufacture rowing machines that are of a stylish design and built to last, while maintaining our commitment to eco-friendliness. Our WaterRower Rowing Machines are functional fitness furniture, designed not to be hidden away like other unsightly gym equipment, but to look at home in your living room. Storing the waterrower in an upright position no wider than a dining room chair, our rowing machines can be easily laid out for a quick indoor rowing exercise session. Order your WaterRower from FitnessZone.com!

Outside of resistance type, we found the number-one arbiter of ride feel to be cord quality. Water ergometers tend to employ nylon cords, while air ergometers feature metal chains — a durability factor we anticipated would result in our favoring air. But while all three water rowers aced our expectation of smooth, high-tension strokes, perfecting the chain seems to be more difficult: Some tug with just a slight rumble, others feature bouncy, grinding chains that are incredibly loud, something akin to angry snoring. As for nylon, the best wind and unwind like elastic silk — no slack, no sound, no catching, just perfectly even tension throughout the stroke.

Rowing machines were first used in Archaic Greece. Chabrias, an Athenian military general in 4th Century B.C., invented wooden rowing simulators for his inexperienced oarsmen. This enabled them to learn technique and timing before stepping foot on actual water crafts. And it must have worked — Chabrias successfully led numerous naval attacks against the Spartans.
The WaterRower Xeno Müller Signature Edition rowing machine is handcrafted in solid ash and finished with honey oak stain for color. The WaterRower Xeno Müller Signature Edition has been specifically designed in collaboration with US Olympian and single scull record holder Xeno Müller. This special edition rower features a wider 17" handle and lower footrests for an increased range. Another special feature is Xeno\'s signature included on the rails of either side of the rower thus inspiring you to row like an Olympian!
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We spent 42 hours on research, videography, and editing, to review the top picks for this wiki. These days, there’s no need to trek to a gym and pay costly membership fees if you want to get fit and stay healthy. Rowing machines provide a low-impact, full-body workout that targets almost every major muscle group. Once you choose the model that best fits your needs and find a convenient location somewhere in your home, there's nothing left to do but dip your oars. When users buy our independently chosen editorial picks, we may earn commissions to support our work. Skip to the best rowing machine on Amazon.
The WaterRower Natural is outfitted with a Series 4 performance monitor that's designed to balance technical sophistication with user-friendliness. The monitor--which includes six information and programming windows, six QuickSelection buttons, and three navigation buttons--displays your workout intensity, stroke rate, heart rate, zone bar, duration, and distance. Plus, the monitor is compatible with an optional heart rate chest strap and receiver, which helps you optimize your workout and achieve your exercise objectives.
Rowing is unusual in the demands it places on competitors. The standard world championship race distance of 2,000 metres is long enough to have a large endurance element, but short enough (typically 5.5 to 7.5 minutes) to feel like a sprint. This means that rowers have some of the highest power outputs of athletes in any sport.[35] At the same time the motion involved in the sport compresses the rowers' lungs, limiting the amount of oxygen available to them. This requires rowers to tailor their breathing to the stroke, typically inhaling and exhaling twice per stroke, unlike most other sports such as cycling where competitors can breathe freely.
Rowing is a highly aerobic activity which burns calories quickly and gives you a complete cardiocascular workout which is a great way to help your heart as well as tone your arms, legs, chest, back, and abs. What most people don't realize is that Rowing improves joint health through a wide range of motion and relieves stress because it allows you to remove yourself from the world around you, to connect to the calm and quiet of the water, and to meditate through the rhythmic, repetitive motion of your stroke. Rowing is a great way to get Aerobic and Anaerobic benefits without even thinking about it. Rowing also provides a workout for a variety of different muscles and joints in your body. If you want to see improvements in both your cardio fitness levels and your overall strength, it can give you the desired results you're looking for.
Bring the experience and benefits of rowing on water with this professionally-built Stamina water rower machine. The incorporated water resistance in this exercise machine offers smoother and more consistent rowing but more importantly, just like rowing in an actual body of water, this workout machine is built to provide infinite resistance--harder and faster rowing motions cause increased resistance. To tailor the resistance according to your fitness goals, simply increase or decrease water level using the siphon included in the package. Moreover, the steel frame construction and rowing beam ensure durability for years while the sturdy, pivoting footplates with straps offer comfort and security. To help you keep track of your fitness progress, this home gym machine is also equipped with a multi-function monitor that tracks total strokes, strokes per minute, distance, time, and calories burned. Other features include: wide molded seat, textured and padded handles for better and comfort
The dense resistance of water creates substantial drag, but on the WaterRower models, this is perfectly tempered by a whippy cord. It coils and recoils with such steady speed that one tester noted how the Classic “eats the rope back up on recovery.” This smooth agility helps balance out the impact of encountering slow water at the start of every stroke.
Each machine has been hand finished with Danish Oil and Urethane for protection. Wood has been chosen due to its marvelous engineering properties, primary amongst these is its ability to absorb sound and vibration enhancing the WaterRower's quietness and smoothness of use. Ash, like all woods used in WaterRower construction, is a premium hardwood with incredible longevity and dimensional stability. For reasons of ecology, all our woods are harvested from replenishable forests.
Rowers may take part in the sport for their leisure or they may row competitively. There are different types of competition in the sport of rowing. In the U.S. all types of races are referred to as regattas whereas this term is only used in the UK for head-to-head or multi-lane races (such as those that take place at Dorney Lake), which generally take place in the summer season. Time trials occur in the UK during the winter, and are referred to as Head races. In the US, head races (usually about 5k, depending on the body of water) are rowed in the fall, while 2k sprint races are rowed in the spring and summer.